Michael's Movie Grade: B
A really fun popcorn movie.
This film knows exactly what it wants to be it doesn't pretend to be anything more than just a fun trip to the movies. With this the film provides exactly what audiences want to see. It is simply a lot of fun. The filmmakers know just how seriously to take the story. They know that He-Man lore can be quite goofy and have no problem joking about this (the origin of some of the characters' names is a brilliant piece of meta-humor), yet they never make the story so much of a joke that it has no emotional attachment. Much of the emotional connection comes from our main character Prince Adam. As a fish out of water in both the fantasy world of Eternia and on our world of Earth, we completely root for him. He is a perfect example of the type of movie underdog that audiences can't help but root for. When he succeeds, we want to cheer for him. When he fails, we want to see him stand back up again. With the audience already on its side, the action scenes are remarkably fun. They have a larger than life feel and are visual treats. The use of rock music on the soundtrack works perfectly here. I especially love the use of Queen's Princes of the Universe during the climatic action sequence (Queen's Brain May provides some guitar riffs for the score). The movie also works because of how great its worldbuilding is. From the prologue alone, you get a great feel for how this world works before the story even gets fully underway. Even if you have never seen anything He-Man related before, as you watch this movie you will find yourself completely immersed in this fantasy world.
The humor can be a bit hit and miss here. Some of the jokes are laugh out loud funny, while others fall completely flat.
This movie does suffer from some poor pacing with some sequences lasting longer than need be, while others feel rushed. The film also suffers from a fault of many movies based off a TV series. That is that there are too many characters and some feel like they are squeezed in without really adding much of anything.
This will be a pure delight for He-Man fans and still fun for those who never have seen He-Man before.
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